It was Stella's own wish that they, Mrs. Sinclair, her husband and herself, should visit America on their wedding journey, and Sir Frederic, thinking it would be best for them all to leave for a time the scenes of so much sorrow, readily acceded to her wish. Not but that he would have consented just as readily to a trip across the Sahara or to some unexplored region in the mountains of the moon, but America was her wish, and to America they sailed on the first Cunarder that left Liverpool after their marriage.
Stella's marriage to Sir Frederic, although a quiet and unostentatious event, brought, both to Stella and Mrs. Sinclair, a sense of security and protection that was very grateful after the anxieties and excitement of the past.
Women may prate of independent self reliance, and scorn the assistance of man during their hours of success and pleasure, but seldom it is in the darker days, when danger threatens and the weakness of a delicate organism assumes alarming proportions, that the willing hand and steady head of an honorable man, goes unappreciated.
Goodly numbers there be, whose only claim to manliness lies in body and garments, from the weakness of whose intellects, brave women turn with ill concealed disgust, but an unwomanly woman it is that does not value true masculine strength and bravery and turn with grateful heart to the protecting arm that is proffered so gladly in each and every disaster of life.
It seemed to Stella that forever and ever she was safe from the temptations and evils of life, and upon the rock of her husband's protection she threw herself with that tender helplessness so dear to an adoring husband's heart.
Woman has done much to increase man's femininety by her persistency in doing his duties for him, and if now her "lord and master" sits calmly by while she labors for the support of the family, the responsibility of this deplorable result rests, in nearly every instance, upon herself or some other self-sufficient member of her short sighted sisterhood.
Mrs. Sinclair had been an almost worshiping wife, but her independent nature responded to the touch of necessity, and in the time of required bravery no woman could have acted with greater courage and judgment.
Thus, in Stella's childlike trust, Sir Frederic recognized the germs of noble womanhood, and respect and reverence blended deeply with his tender love and passion.
When at last the service was ended and man and wife were clasped in each other's arms, that measure of perfect and enduring love was felt by them that is rarely known in this world of thoughtless and misguided unions.
Little did they dream that on the very night of their perfect happiness, another terrible tragedy was being enacted, with Maurice Sinclair in the villain's role and Elizabeth Merril again the victim.